sunny side up
by xfucktheglasses
Summary: It was midnight when he admitted he loved her. —SasuSaku.


Originally, this was in my old SasuSaku oneshot collection. As it is, I am finding things that I still love in those old docs I manage to save. This one had little to be fixed/replaced. So. Here it is~

**sunny side up**

It was early dawn when he met her.

The sun was in that cliché position – where only the upper half was showing and the lower half was still hiding, somewhere. The streets were already filled with walking pedestrians; mothers rushing their kids towards school; business idiots walking and trying to balance out a portable coffee mug, a newspaper and a briefcase; and then there were teenagers leaving homes too early to escape those invisible, white little demons that never let them have some sort of peace.

He was one of the latter; walking aimlessly with nothing on him but the clothes covering his limbs. He was a walking disaster with bags under his eyes and messy black hair. He had his hands in his pockets, eyes set straight ahead and mind shutdown from the exhaustion he refused to admit he felt and his face was as cloudy as ever.

He sat down on one of the outside tables of a café, slouched, hands in his pockets and eyes still so distant. He didn't really remember how long he stayed like that – staring at the metal design of the table, at the hole where the umbrella was supposed to go, at the day-week-month-year old gums glued to the gray-concrete sidewalks.

Someone came to stand next to him, suddenly; their small form causing a shadow as the sun lazily went up higher in the sky. He didn't really pay attention to them, at first, because for one he was in his own world (or perhaps somewhat asleep) and for two he didn't give a shit about them.

And then this person tapped his shoulder. It was like a spell being broken. He slowly turned to face the person and was met with green eyes on a pixie-like face and wind-blown pink hair.

"May I sit here?"

He stared at her and turned to stare at all the other table; most were occupied. Slowly, he turned to look at her and didn't reply.

She stared at him, expectantly, a pink eyebrow raised.

Slowly, he shrugged.

"Thank you," she chirped, taking her seat and pulling out a book. "Are you waiting for someone? I'll totally move once—"

"No."

His eyes were on the front of her book, but he didn't read the title – his attention was grasped by highlighter yellow nail polish on bitten-nails. He rolled his eyes and sat up, just a bit.

The girl began to hum, the leg resting over the other leg was swinging up and down and why was she wearing a white dress with cowgirl boots? It was six AM and it was _cold_. He wanted to scoff but he didn't really have the energy to, so he ignored her and went back to not thinking and just being another body in the world.

"I'm Sakura," she said, lightly, peeking at him from the top of her book. She was smiling and he kind of thought of her as a devious, evil pixie on the verge of killing him some way or another. "I like your eyes."

He was taken aback, for a split second. He managed to croak, "Sasuke."

But no compliment.

Sakura smiled at him and engrossed herself, again, on her book.

Sasuke stood up and left.

.

.

.

It was noon when he saw her again.

He was walking, aimlessly, down the park and his mind was on moms and dads and sisters and brothers and family vacations and beaches and he wanted to escape, sort of. His hands were in the pockets of his jeans and his eyes were distant as they stared at the ground ahead of him. His hair was still wild and he managed to look a little less disheveled than that day, last week.

Actually, he looked a lot better than last week, but he didn't like to think about himself so he just forced his mind to draw a blank and that's when his eyes caught pink.

Sasuke turned to look towards the right – she was sitting on a bench; body so small, that she could sit criss-cross without much trouble. He entertained the musing of how long and hard it'd be to break her in half.

He supposed she felt eyes on her, the reason why she looked up and have her green eyes meet his.

"Oh, hi!" She said, waving him over.

Sasuke was irked, but nonetheless did he slowly walk over. He didn't sit, just stood to the side, hands still in his pockets.

"You're Sasuke – the guy from last week." She grinned and gave him a wink. "Bet you don't 'member my name."

"Sakura," he said, just to win the bet.

Sakura smiled, and patted the space next to her. "Sit with me."

Sasuke shook his head because Karin liked coming to this park, if she chose to walk down here with that blond best friend of hers, and saw him here with this girl named Sakura, she'd tell their mother and the last thing he wanted was for her to start asking for grandchildren.

"Aw," she said, pouting. "Are you busy?"

"No."

Sakura blinked up at him, snapping her book shut. "So, you wouldn't mind showing me around, Mr. One-Worded-Answers?"

He stared at her, hard for a second. Oh… "You new?"

"Mhm!"

Sasuke gave this much thought. On one hand, he had something to do; this was a girl that just moved into the shithole called Konoha and she was in need of some guidance, screw the fact that he wasn't much of a talker, but he _did _know every nook and cranny, every cutty spot of Konoha. Now on the _other _hand, he'd bump into his sister, or his brother, or his mother, or one of his idiot friends.

He sighed and nudged his head to the side. "Fine."

.

.

.

.

It was evening when he walked her home.

What Sasuke found out about Sakura Haruno in two mere days was that she was prone to paper cuts and just about anything that defined a klutz; she had a cat with violent mood swings and a little puppy who was as playful as anything you'd ever think was playful – oh, and the cat and the pup were best friends and "it's the most cutest thing in the world!". He also learned that she lived alone, most of the time, coz her aunt of some sort was working at the hospital.

It had taken him a whole week to show her Konoha (since she liked to spend time in the places he took her to) – the first day, she insisted on treating him to something; Sasuke had refused countless of times, rather haughtily, but in the end Sakura had bought him and herself a slice of pizza each. And today, the last day, he reciprocated the action (because he was Sasuke, and no one one-upped him) by treating her at the diner on Avenue.

Now, here they were walking down a street, heading towards her house. It was getting dark, and Sasuke was raised to be a gentleman.

"Here's my house," Sakura said, happily, trudging up the walkway.

Sasuke looked up at the light blue house – at the garage, the front porch, the sofa-swing-thing (_what's its name_, he wondered) and at the darkness peeking out through the windows. He turned to look at Sakura at the same time she turned to face him, hands on her small hips.

"Come sit on my swing with me!" She smiled at him and Sasuke was stumped at how used he was to its brightness. "I bet you're tired."

He refused, but in the end she won. Like always.

Sighing and groaning at himself, Sasuke sat on the swing, blinking as it slowly swung back and forth. Sakura had run off inside to do who knew what and Sasuke's attention was quickly grasped by the _very _bright star shining in the berry sherbet sky. It must be Mars. Or Venus.

Whatever.

"Here we go!" Sakura allowed the mesh-door to slap itself closed behind her as she quickly plopped down next to him. She dropped around five juice boxes between them and looked up at him with twinkling eyes and glossy smiles.

Sasuke scoffed and shook his head, but he grabbed a box and stabbed the white straw on the little hole.

"I bet I can squirt farther than you!"

Sasuke was taken aback.

He turned to look at her just in time to see her squirt her juice out of her mouth, through her teeth. She was leaning forwards, and the juice was falling to the grass, over the balcony of her porch. Sasuke wasn't one to let a bet go; that's why he opened a new juice box and sucked out half of the juice before he mimicked her squirting.

In the end, he grudgingly admitted, their squirting length was the same.

"Oh," Sakura murmured, "You got…"

She trailed off, a finger reaching for the side of his lip just as he turned to look at her. She wiped off the bit of juice with her forefinger and with a twinkle in her eyes, their eyes connected, she brought the finger to her lips. "There we go!"

Sasuke excused himself, then.

.

.

.

It was twilight when everyone asked him about her.

September passed and November came and with it changed the amount of time he knew Sakura; a couple of weeks turned into a full out month and the days increased, too. But Sasuke didn't like admitting to that.

With the months changing, came his mother's dreaded dinners in which she demanded her kids to invite their friends. Sasuke was misfortunate enough to have it be his turn. And so, the dinner table was filled with his father, his mother, Itachi, Karin, Naruto, Kiba, Neji and Suigetsu (here, Sasuke glared because he so _knew _he eyeballed his sister every chance he got).

"Okay," Naruto was the one to change the subject from baseball to… Sasuke glared. "Who's this Sakura-chick, Sasuke?"

Sasuke glared harder. Especially when his mother, his brother and his sister perked up. (He was kind of thankful his dad didn't care if his boys were manwhores or were taking their time with girls; now Karin… Sasuke smirked. Blackmail, anyone?)

"No one, what?" Sasuke looked down at his plate.

"Dude," Kiba said, trying to cover his snorts and chuckles, "Come off it, bro. You have her hair scrunchies all over your room. What, is she over every night? Aw, our little boy grew up, guys."

Kiba and Neji high-fived and Sasuke despaired at his mother's look. It's like she struck gold.

"Sakura," She asked. "Who is she, Sasuke-chan? I must meet her! Are you going to marry her? Sasuke!"

"Don't be ridiculous," Sasuke tried to defend himself. "Those scrunchies could be Karin's. You know she's always in my room; she could have—"

"Yeah," Naruto said, "And I wear glow in the dark panties."

"I wouldn't be surprised," Sasuke muttered.

"Wait," Itachi finally chipped in, gleefully. "Sakura – I knew her name sounded familiar. She's that girl who writes on your wall on facebook. So, foolish little brother, is she your girlfriend for real—"

"Shut up, 'Tachi."

"—Karin, we're going to have to hack his account and change his relationship status."

Oh god, Karin. How could he have forgotten his evil sister?

"I think we might, 'Tachi," she said with a giggle. She pushed up her glasses and smirked. "Who would have thought, Sasuke actually had good taste? Coz those pics this Sakura has—" here she whistled "—she's goddamn hot."

With his friends laughing and his sister talking to their parents about how Sakura looked and his brother already deriving plans, Sasuke stood from his seat and stalked towards his room. God, he hated everyone.

.

.

.

It was midnight when he admitted he loved her.

Sasuke sat on his desk chair, his face illuminated by the screen of his TV. He didn't like sleeping, much; and he always seemed to entertain himself in some way. Well, actually, right now he found himself writing an essay. How disgusting.

That was before he heard It.

The pebble.

It's been months, now, and the pebble was something like a ritual every night. Months... Mid March and Sasuke was more than used to the pebble; sometimes, he swore he heard it while he was asleep.

He stood up and walked to the glass sliding doors, moving the clear-see-through curtains and slowly opening the door up. He stepped onto the wooden balcony stared at the forest-like-thing that made up his backyard and then looked down at Sakura's grinning face.

This ritual... It involved her walking alone, to his house (this part sort of annoyed him) in nothing but her flannel pajamas and a hoodie she took out of his closet, along with her sneakers and her hair up in a messy bun. Then, she'd throw pebbles at his balcony-window-doors-thing and he'd pull her up.

Having a balcony that was about seven feet off the ground proved to be useful.

As the ritual went, Sasuke outstretched his arm and grabbed her hand and with his strength pulled her up.

"Hi," she breathed out, sitting on the edge.

"Hey."

He stared at her hair – it had been a good few months since that disastrous dinner, but he still remembered Kiba mention her hair scrunchies in his room. Surprisingly, Sasuke didn't care tonight.

He turned around and led them both back into his dark room and he quietly sat on his desk chair. Sakura fed her habit and poked around at his stuff. She always started with his bookshelf, finding a book she'd borrow and read and return two days later. Then she'd move to his closet, where she looked up at the shelves before she moved towards his desk.

Once she got to his desk, tonight, she grabbed at a pack of gum. She gasped softly, yet excitedly and shoved her hand into her (his) pocket and pulled out a packet of her own. "Sasuke, look!" She showed him the two packets and giggled. "Your pack is my pack's bubblegum sister!"

Sasuke ignored the packs of gums and stared at her glowing face. Sakura was so weird; he was kind of used to it. Actually, _he _felt weird if he didn't get his dosage of Sakura every day. Funny how she satisfied that addiction of sort without even knowing she was helping his cause.

He watched her pop one gum of each pack into her mouth. "Minty fresh!"

He rolled his eyes and snorted, a ghost of a smirk on his lips.

"What're you doing," she stage-whispered. They wouldn't want to wake his family. He went stiff when she slid onto his lap and looked at his essay. She was so tiny, he thought, forcing himself to relax. "Hm," she murmured, "Okay! Go ahead and finish! Maybe then, we can watch a movie?"

Swallowing, Sasuke sighed (for show) and nodded.

He watched her let her short, shoulder-length hair loose from its constraint and followed her hand as she dropped the scrunchie on his desk; another one for the collection, he mused, almost fondly. Sakua turned to look at him with expectant eyes and he couldn't help but chuckle.

"Okay, okay," he said and began to type.

He winged it, as he typed – his mind was elsewhere. It was in a daze, picturing a pixie-girl with pink hair and bewitching green eyes. A pixie-girl that had a million paper cuts on her hands and on the most awkward places; that has cat scars up her arms and that smiles a sunny side up smile that caused his feeble, black hole of a heart to pound erratically.

Oh god.

Did he?

Really?

He knew he _liked _her since he built up this weird relationship with her… But did he?

Sakura shifted in her seat on his lap, moving in front of him to read (typical; she got into it). Sasuke smelt her hair – that tangible mixture of tangerines and jasmines and Sasuke answered his own question.

And so, with all the guts he could muster – because Sasuke wasn't very good at keeping his revelations to himself, no matter how much he tried to prove otherwise – he typed, on his essay:

I love you, Sakura.

And waited for her to catch up and read that single line.

It took her a while (mostly because she continued to get distracted by her gum) but when she did, she sort of gasped and went stiff before she turned around and stared at him with wide green eyes. Sasuke tapped the backspace button, his eyes on hers and a cloud on his face.

"Really," she finally whispered.

He nodded his head because that was really all he could do.

And then she was kissing him, all of a sudden – a kiss. Her lips pressed against his; chaste and substantial.


End file.
